Beyond Tea-Party Somnambulism!

Posts tagged ‘warfare’

The following is the campaign speech of President Franklin Roosevelt, running in his third campaign for the White House.

“For nearly four years now, you have had an administration which instead of twirling its thumbs, has rolled up its sleeves. And I can assure you that we will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace: business and financial monopoly, speculation, wreckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs, and we know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mobs!

Never before in all our history have these causes been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me and I welcome their hatred!

I should like to have it said of my first administration, that in it, the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match! I should like to have it said! Wait a minute! I should like to have it said of my second administration, that in it, these forces met their master!”

FDR...the more things change, the more they stay the same!

It’s amazing how the same forces that plague us now: “business and financial monopoly, speculation, wreckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering” were the very same foes FDR fought against. Perhaps, President Obama needs to take a lesson from history and deliver the same speech to Congress and the American people. More than anything else, FDR always came across as a leader, unafraid and sure of himself and his course, believing that he was working in the best interest of the American working class. THAT’S why he was so loved and asked to run again and again! This is what the working class needs from President Obama…fierceness…direction…a strong will…and belief in the working class!